CRYSTALLUM (The Primordial Principles Book 1)

by McMann, Laney

  "It was fine." Kade shrugged. She'd glanced at the driveway and down the road several times before finally letting Giselle in the front door. Having friends over without her dad home was against the rules. She relented after Giselle pushed her way inside the house. "Jake's nice."

  “Just nice?” Giselle cocked an eyebrow.

  "Yeah, he seems...nice. I don't really know him." Kade plopped on the couch in her too-big sweatpants and sweatshirt, having changed the second she'd gotten home.

  "No butterflies in your stomach? No heart dropping to your feet?" Giselle sat next to her.

  "We just met."

  "What's that have to do with being hot for someone? You either know or you don't."

  "It's not like I'm looking for a boyfriend, anyway." Like that would even be an option.

  "Everyone is looking for someone, Kade. We're seventeen. That's what we do. Dates and clothes. In that order."

  "Really? I'm screwed then."

  "Really." Giselle gave her a serious stare. "And don't expect to be getting any dates in what you're wearing right now."

  Kade pulled on her thick, multi-colored socks, and twisted her hair into a knot on top of her head. "Not interested in what anyone thinks of my sweats, G. Anyway, there was kind of...a fight. In the parking lot." She headed toward the kitchen. "Want something to drink?"

  "A fight? What do you mean there was a fight?" Giselle shuffled after her.

  “Well, that guy, Kyle, he kind of threatened me in the hallway earlier today. After school." Giselle's eyes widened and some of the color faded from her cheeks. "I mean, threatened ...bullied would be a better word." Although it's the same thing. "He told me I needed to stick with my alliances. Whatever the hell that means." Giselle didn't speak. "So, we ran into him outside the coffee place, and he said something about how it was good to see that I listened to him or whatever, and I kind of told him he needed to see a doctor because of his ass beating."

  Giselle nodded, skin paler.

  "And, well, he tried to slap me. And did scratch me. And Cole kind of...strangled him. A little. And he told Kyle that he'd basically kill him if he ever talked to me, touched me, or came near me again."

  Giselle was white. Like a sheet. "Where'd Cole come from? Where was Jake?"

  "Jake was in front of me. He said something to Kyle, too. Cole was walking down the sidewalk. It was really weird. One second Cole was twenty feet away, and the next second, his hand was around Kyle's throat." Kade opened the fridge. "We've got Coke, juice, water, milk?"

  "Just water."

  Kade threw her a bottle, and a sharp pain, like a cramp, radiated through her palm. The little cut Kyle had administered to her cheek stung as well. Bastard.

  "I can't believe Kyle did that. I mean, he's going to really...this is—" Giselle glanced up. "So, that's crazy about Cole." She took a sip of her water.

  "Yeah. It kind of was."

  "I know you've got something for him." She pulled a bar stool out and sat at the counter. "You don't need to try to hide it."

  "I'm not hiding anything. How can I like someone I don't even know?"

  "Like I said, when you meet someone, you just know. It's called a crush."

  "I don't have a crush on Cole. He seems really conceited. Jake said they've hated each other for years."

  "Sounds about right." Giselle tipped up her water bottle. "Cole hangs around his own. He doesn't move out of his little circle. We're all beneath him." She grinned and twisted the cap back on the bottle. "Not that I would mind being beneath him."

  "I'd rather not have the visual. I think he has a girlfriend, anyway."

  "No, he doesn't."

  "Well, he was with someone at the coffee shop, and it was clear they were together." Kade tried not to picture the girl's hand under the hem of Cole's shirt.

  "Really?"

  Kade nodded.

  "Probably Tiffany." Giselle popped her shoulders up and down. "Maybe they got back together."

  "Tiffany?"

  "Cole's ex."

  "Oh." Kade averted her eyes.

  "Not interested, huh?" Giselle grinned and hopped off the stool. "Want us to pick you up for school tomorrow?"

  "Thanks, but I think I'm going to drive myself again. My dad went to the trouble of buying new snow tires for my car and everything."

  "Meet me by the front stairs before class?"

  "Sounds good."

  Giselle made her way onto the front porch. "So, Jake...he didn't do anything when Kyle tried to smack you?"

  "He was standing right in front of me, but Kyle's hand slipped around him, I guess. It happened so fast. I didn't even realize what happened until Cole had Kyle against the car." And all the windows exploded. Kade had no idea how to explain that, or why no one had seemed surprised by it. It hadn't been the first time she'd made something explode, but it was the first time she didn't remember doing it. Sort of like the Shadow that shattered itself at Crystalline...

  Giselle glanced toward the woods, eyes narrowing. “Right. And where was Tiffany again?"

  "On the sidewalk, I guess. Why?"

  "No reason. I'll see you in the morning."

  ***

  Traipsing upstairs, Kade eyed her room. A few sweaters and jeans she didn't think she would need in August, were still packed in boxes. Most of her other clothes were everywhere. Hanging out of half-opened U-Haul boxes shoved against the walls, and over her desk chair.

  With a groan, she realized she'd shoved a few smaller boxes under the bed. Crawling on hands and knees, she tugged on the closest one, pretty sure it had some shoes she hadn't been able to find inside it. The box resisted and she yanked hard. It gave way, tearing the bottom off, and leaving half the box stuck to the floor under the bed.

  Right next to the burger place cup.

  That had fallen from her night stand.

  During the earthquake that wasn't an earthquake...

  Before she'd run outside in the snow, and...

  Oh, my god.

  Ribbons of color flooded her thoughts. The memory of clean laundry and fire rushed over her senses. The freezing cold. Laying in the snow, and...flying. She'd been...flying. And Dracon. She remembered seeing Dracon.

  Kade's hand froze, hovering over the burger place cup as if it might bite her. She touched it. Real. Scrambling back, she yanked her boots on, stumbling for her coat. She ran downstairs, rushed outside, and found herself on an inclined path on the side of her yard, staring down into a valley.

  Pine needles were strewn over the snow. The trees were snapped, bending on top of one another. As if a tidal wave of water, or wind, had rushed over them. She touched the back of her head where it had been pounding, and her fingertips traced a knot at the base of her skull. The place her head had whacked against something hard when she'd been thrown backward. Was that right?

  Inhaling a deep breath, she turned around. The fading sun glittered off the windows of her house and mingled with the barren trees. Strange thoughts and clips of color streaked through her mind. Remnants of voices and shouts, soft touches, and someone saying her name, all flooded into one incoherent mess. A glimpse of something moved from the corner of her eye, and she froze. The forest remained quiet, still, the way it always was in winter, as if nothing lived within the barren cold. Only the slight crackle of icicles falling reached her ears.

  Until a twig snapped. A sound only a footstep could make. Kade squinted, trying to see through the snow covered trees. Standing still, she knew without seeing, that something—or someone—was close. She could feel it. Sense it.

  Dracon.

  Another snap, louder, closer, and Kade took off like lightning toward her house.

  ***

  When Danny and Cole were kids, Danny had always wanted to race—try to up his time against Cole, but he'd never beaten him. Not even once. No one had.

  Until today.

  Cole stood in the woods outside Kade's house, heart hammering painfully against his ribs. Any doubt he might have had about Kade's l
ack of ability, or strength, was gone. Evaporated as quickly as she had fled when she'd heard his footsteps.

  After checking that her house was still free from Daemoneum threats, he'd spotted her in the forest. His first instinct had been to say hi, until he remembered that she wasn't the Kade who knew him, not the one who remembered what had happened between them. So instead of approaching her, he'd held his ground, but in his distracted state, he'd stepped on a stick, and the crack reverberated through the silent woods like a firecracker.

  He didn't want to scare her, but he did want to see what her reaction would be if she felt threatened. What she would, and could, do as a fledgling, and if she could take care of herself, like Danny had said, so Cole had taken another deliberate step, louder, closer.

  Danny had been right. Kade wasn't helpless. Not at all. But, if Cole hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he never would have believed it. None of their kind moved the way Kadence had. She was a literal blur of color against the white trees when she ran. No one should have ever been able to track her, much less see her, with that kind of speed. How had the Nefarius found her at Crystalline if she had the ability to move that fast? Clearly, her speed was part of the reason she'd managed to survive to the age of seventeen living outside of the protection of a common house. Her speed was one thing, but the color Kade left in her wake, her corona, had him utterly speechless and immobile.

  It was red.

  Rubeum.

  Primevas were never red.

  It was a color only a Primori could have. The rarest, most powerful corona.

  No one within the entire Ward was red.

  Except Cole.

  ***

  Two seconds.

  That was all it took for Kade to reach her front door and slip inside.

  Two seconds.

  No one would have been able to follow the blur of movement her wake would have left. She knew that.

  Shaking, she searched her pockets. Nothing. She took the stairs two at a time toward her bedroom, and grabbed her jeans off the floor. The pockets were empty. Her skirt from Saturday night. Empty. Checking her coat again, there was nothing.

  Where is it?

  Pulse racing, Kade shoved the U-Haul boxes away from the wall, throwing the contents on the floor, her bed, searching. Pain sliced through her jaw. Red barbs lurked on the edge of her peripheral vision. Sweat beaded over her brow and her face morphed into the monster. She choked back sobs, tears streaming down her cheeks, blinding her vision, as she threw clothes and shoes from boxes on the floor in a flurry of material. Her fingers touched something hard and cool in the last box, and Kade wrapped her hands around the large stone, drawing it to her chest.

  The crystal she chipped pieces off of in case she lost the small ones she always carried. Her body unwound, relaxed, pulse slowed, and the protrusions retracted, replaced by the unblemished skin of her human face.

  Peeking through the blinds, everything remained still. Quiet. Untouched. No footsteps marred the snow where she'd run. She was too fast. Whatever was in the woods would never have been able to see, hear, or follow her when she fled. It was a power she almost never used. It was too risky. Humans didn't move from one place to another within seconds.

  Nothing can move the way you can, Dracon had told her once.

  Her movements, if she wanted them to be, were nearly invisible to the human eye. But someone was out there. In the woods and untouched snow. She felt it in her bones. In a way she'd never felt anything before.

  Someone who, she realized, just saw exactly what she was capable of.

  She'd just broken her dad's biggest rule: never expose yourself.

  To anyone.

  ***

  The front door opened, and Kade had never loved the sound of her dad's footsteps more. She skipped down the stairs and practically rushed him.

  "Kadey?" His eyes widened. "Everything okay?"

  "Yeah," she answered, breathless. "I'm just glad you're home."

  He chuckled. "I don't think I've ever heard you so excited."

  She shrugged. "Sorry."

  "I was thinking of trying out a new cookie recipe tonight. Want to help me?"

  "Sure. That'd be great." Kade kicked off her boots and followed him into the kitchen.

  It didn't take long before the onslaught of burnt sugar and metal assaulted them. How her dad had managed to burn the sheet pan along with all the cookies, Kade wasn't sure.

  "Dad?" He stood over the sink, a flood of water dousing the black sheet pan, and steam streaming from it with a wicked sizzle. "Maybe we should start smaller?" Kade pointed toward a mound of half-brown, half-black things that resembled hockey pucks. Sometimes, she wondered how he'd become a surgeon. "Like Rice Krispie Treats? Just melt the marshmallows and voila."

  Her dad glanced toward the smoking sheet pan, and the “cookies” stacked haphazardly in a bowl on the counter. "That's not a bad idea." He turned the water off, a cloud of smoke still hovering around the kitchen ceiling. "Good day at school?"

  She shrugged, reaching for one of the lighter brown cookies.

  "What's really wrong, Kadey?" He tossed the kitchen towel on the counter.

  "Did I tell you I got Pre-Calculus on my schedule?" She took a tiny bite of the cookie. Yep. Burnt. Yuck.

  "You did. And? What happened?"

  "Nothing bad." The teacher is total jerk, though. "But I need to transfer into something I have half a prayer of understanding."

  "It's your senior year, Kadence. These classes are important, and I'm not sure there are many other math options for your grade."

  "I barely passed Algebra II, Dad. Math's not my thing. It's your thing."

  He pushed away from the counter. "As long you promise to keep your grades up in all your other classes, I'll go down to the school and meet with your counselor. Maybe you can retake one of the courses you didn't do so well in the first time."

  "You mean a remedial class?"

  "I mean I'll see what your options are, and we'll go from there. Deal?" He gave a resigned smile.

  “Deal.” She pushed to her feet, starting toward the stairs before turning back. “Dad?"

  "Yeah?"

  "Um...there's something I wanted to ask you." She took a breath. "There's a...dance. At school...the Fall Dance." Her hands fidgeted. "It's a totally casual thing. Just friends hanging out."

  His brows arched.

  “Anyway, Giselle and Lindsey are going and we were talking about going as a group, all together, and," she glanced at her striped socked feet, "and this guy, Jake—"

  His jaw tightened.

  Oh, god. Don't say anything else. Just go upstairs and leave it alone.

  Her dad shook his head, hands already waving at her to stop talking. "No boys. You know the rules."

  "Dad, I'm seventeen. And a senior, like you said—"

  His jaw clamped. Wrong thing to say, Kade. Senior in high school and seventeen probably screamed “sex” to a dad with a daughter. Dammit.

  "That's not what I meant. I hardly know Jake—" Shut up, Kade. "I just thought it would be fun...to go to a dance." Her chin dropped. "I've never been to one before." When her dad didn't answer, she turned toward the stairs. Even if Jake showed up at her house and asked to take her to the dance, her dad would likely chase him across the yard like a psycho killer. All the way back to his pretty Mustang. She grinned. It really wasn't funny. Her life had become a series of moves and no friendships that lasted longer than a few months. She tried not to think about how sad that was.

  Kade reached for the stair railing, and a biting pain tore through her right hand. With a slight yelp, as if she'd been bitten, she looked at her palm. In the very center, a deep red dot had formed. As if a drop of blood had hit her hand with a splat. It resembled a lightning strike. The way the electricity fissured when it hit. A networked grid of tiny converging red lines, or maybe it resembled a miniature spider web. Great, now both of my palms have something wrong with them.

  The doorbell rang, and she t
ripped up a step, and caught her elbow on the railing. Before she could right herself, or relieve the funny-bone sensation speeding through her shoulder, her dad was out of the kitchen, across the living room, and at the front door with it swung wide.

  "Yes?" His tone was clipped.

  "Mr. Sparrow, sir. It's nice to meet you. I'm Jake. Jake Phillips."

  Oh god, no. Kade eased up the stairs. Such a coward.

  "I wanted to ask your permission to take Kadence to the dance on Saturday. Would that be all right with you?"

  No response.

  She snuck up a few more steps.

  "I could have her back home as early as you'd like."

  Nothing.

  "Sir?"

  Another three steps and she'd be at the top. In the clear.

  "Jake, was it? I'm not sure how you knew where my daughter lived," her dad began, and Kade froze, shocked he hadn't simply slammed the door in Jake's face. It wouldn't have been the first time. "But Kadence isn't allowed to date, so I'm afraid the answer is no." The front door squeaked to shut. Jake's signal to get the hell away from the house.

  "I wouldn't really call it a date, sir," Jake piped up. He had guts. "I mean, not that I don't like Kade. I do."

  Oh, no. Shut up, Jake.

  "But the dance is just a group thing, really. Welcome back to school, and all that. No pressure."

  No pressure?

  The door slammed, marking the end of that conversation, or any other communication Kade would likely ever have with Jake again.

  Thanks, Dad. Everyone will think I'm a social leper. Again.

  Kade crept into her bedroom, hoping her dad didn't come in asking how Jake knew where she lived. Google maps, maybe? The doorbell rang again. You have got to be joking. Kade rushed the bedroom door like a defensive end and creaked it open.

  "Sir? I'm sorry if I said something to offend you. It wasn't my intention, and I respect your decision of not allowing me to take Kadence to the dance."

  "Oh?" Her dad's tone was flat, uninterested, and annoyed.